After a somewhat calm first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Montreal Canadiens are gearing up for what is expected to be an intense second round matchup against the Original Six rival Boston Bruins. The Habs have won three of the four meetings against the Bruins this season but that doesnt mean much for the Habs. "They have so much playoff experience," said Canadiens forward Daniel Briere. "The Bruins have been to the Stanley Cup Finals twice in the past three years; winning once and losing to the Chicago Blackhawks last season. They are a team that knows what it takes to win. " Emotions are expected to play a key role in this series and the team that does a better job keeping them in check could possibly be the one that comes out on top. "Coming into this series, Im sure that is something we are going to talk a lot about," Briere added. "We need to be good at controlling our emotions and I expect the Bruins to do the same." The Canadiens have been able to get under the Bruins skin this season and forced them to play their style of game, but what has worked in the regular season doesnt automatically mean it will have the same result in the postseason. "The playoffs are a completely different game; we know we have a great challenge ahead of us. Were going to have to fight for everything," Josh Gorges told the media on Sunday. Now that the Canadiens know who theyll be facing in the second round, Michel Therrien has made a slight change to his line up at practice, opting to put the now healthy Travis Moen on the fourth line and replacing rookie Michael Bournival; a move to bring in more veteran presence against a very experienced Bruins team. . When Reyes signed a US$106-million, six-year deal with Miami last month, there was speculation Ramirez was unhappy about being supplanted at short. But new manager Ozzie Guillen sold Ramirez on the idea. . In Europe, top teams seem to be largely happy with their squads after spending nearly $1 billion in the off-season. And although English league clubs are unlikely to splash cash in January, Arsenal and Chelsea could be tempted to strengthen their squads with new strikers.
https://www.cheapuswnt.com/. Judging by his performance Saturday night, Cotto has plenty left in the tank. Cotto became the first Puerto Rican fighter to win world championships in four weight divisions, stopping Sergio Martinez in their WBC world middleweight title fight Saturday night. . - The Seattle Sounders busy off-season continues with the team acquiring defender Chad Marshall from the Columbus Crew in exchange for a 2015 third-round pick and allocation money. . You can see all the action on TSN2 beginning at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt. Chicago won two of three games during its stay at the United Center. The club began the homestand with a 5-1 win over Pittsburgh on March 1 and fell to Colorado on Tuesday before posting another blowout win in Thursdays tilt against Columbus.Got a question on rule clarification, comments on rule enforcements or some memorable NHL stories? Kerry wants to answer your emails at
cmonref@tsn.ca. Hi Kerry, I looked for a comment online from you on the Nazem Kadri hit on Cody Ceci on Saturday night from the Sens/Leafs game, but didnt find one! I have always respected your on-ice decision skills, so I would like your opinion regarding this hit. Was this a case of the player turning his back when he was going to be hit or did Kadri hit a player in a vulnerable position? Thanks,Randy Eades Hi Randy: I did post a late comment @kfraserthecall on Twitter that you must have missed. Sorry it was late but I was engaged in Twitter combat (and being duly vilified) by Canadiens fans over the Brendan Gallagher episode against the Jets! With regard to your question, Cody Ceci was positioned facing the end boards in order to retrieve the puck after it was turned back from the corner by teammate Jared Cowen and as he was being pressured on the forecheck by Nikolai Kulemin of the Leafs. Ceci didnt intentionally turn his body at the last second to set himself up for a hit by Nazem Kadri. That had no bearing on why a penalty call did not result. Instead, Ceci was facing square to the end boards waiting for the puck to arrive on his stick just as Kadri angled from the front of the net and delivered a body check that should have resulted in a boarding minor penalty. The initial point of contact delivered by Kadri was to the left hip of Ceci and not on the numbers. The finishing upward push exerted by Nazem Kadri caused the Ottawa player to tumble forward into the boards. Let me explain for Senators coach Paul McLean and the Ottawa fans why the call was missed by the referees. When you re-examine the video clossely, you will see that referee Paul Devorski, working past his 1,500th game, pivoted out from the corner toward the end faceoff circle in order to vacate the space that Jared Cowen and Nikolai Kulemin would occupy in pursuit of the puck.dddddddddddd The referee then rotated his body 360 degrees in a drift back below the goal line but retained visual focus on both Cowen and Kulemin with a fixed glance over his shoulder well after Cowen dished the puck back toward Ceci. It is clearly evident from the footage that referee Devorski did not turn his head and visual focus toward the action near the net until after Kadri had delivered the illegal hit on Ceci. All the referee witnessed at this point was Ceci down on the ice and Kadri in possession of the puck just prior to a tape-to-tape pass out front to Joffrey Lupul for the Leafs goal. I am positive that referee Devorski would have deemed the hit by Kadri to be worthy of a boarding minor infraction if he had been focused on and witnessed the contact. Since the hit happened directly behind the net the back referee would have at best, an obstructed view if he was looking in that direction. His primary responsibility and area of coverage however was on the action away from the puck; which at that point would have included Cowen and Kulemin in the corner. While we do not see the back referee in the footage, it is conceivable that both refs failed to transition their area of focus once the puck was thrown back behind the net by Cowen. If that were the case, both refs maintained visual focus on the two players in the corner and did not observe the Kadri boarding on Ceci. I hate to be bearer of bad news coach Paul, but that is how the boarding penalty to Kadri was missed and resulted in the Leafs goal that tied the game at two! ' ' '
